Who knew bed-time snacks could be so entertaining.

Watch as I make four raspberries disappear…

… hold on just a second…

… I’m not looking at you, so you can’t see me, right?

… just about got it.

Ta-Da!

And now we dance!

How do you know you are getting serious about making salsa? In the blazing August heat you’re willing to stand over a grill full of… no, not brats or burgers or any other meat… but tomatoes.

Grilled Tomatoes and Onions

Since we’ve moved here, we’ve always ended the summer by picking tomatoes by the bucket… literally. Some times by plan – like when I planted 25 plants. And other times by luck of a strong crop – like the summer Peanut was born and we abandoned the garden only to come home and find a pile of tomatoes my parents picked, processed, and put in our freezer. They never go to waste as most get blanched, peeled, quartered, and frozen, to be used later as is, or in various homemade sauces.

This year was different. With plenty of frozen tomatoes still in the freezer, I only had one goal: salsa. Previous years we’ve had plenty of fresh salsa during the late summer and fall, and were able to use frozen tomatoes to make “fresh” salsa during the winter. My goal was to can salsa using what was coming out of the garden and have it taste good enough that we’d actually eat it later.

I started hunting the internet for a salsa recipe based on what was in the garden… tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, garlic, and cilantro. After a couple of failed auditions, I finally came up with two things: 1) a recipe from www.simplyrecipes.com for Canned Tomato Salsa; and 2) a realization that grilling the tomatoes is well worth the effort.

With a new salsa recipe in hand, I grilled tomatoes by the bucketful – and while I was at it, a few onions. “Fire-roasted” tomato salsa… after canning a few batches of this, we should be set until next year.

Ready To Be Canned

So, the lesson here: when you run across a grill full of blackened tomatoes, don’t ask questions. Find the corn chips.

It had been over 4 months since Peanut’s last visit to UIHC in Iowa City, so the DW and I were understandably a little anxious for Peanut’s most recent check-up at the end of August. The visit turned out to be one of Peanut’s best check-ups yet. Her doctor was so happy with how Peanut has been doing since he last saw her that he felt labs weren’t necessary this visit – and nothing makes for a better visit than skipping a blood draw.

The plan for now is to stay the course on the current version of the Green Bean Shake while restricting sugar, and watching for foods that don’t agree with her. If she continues to grow at the current pace, we may be able to modify the shake recipe to further decrease Peanut’s dependency on it as her main source of calories. Amazingly, Peanut is still off all prescription drugs – only a small dose of Imodium twice a day, a D3 supplement 3 times a week, and her daily gummy vitamin.

Instead of hopping in the car and heading straight back home after the quick check-up, we took Peanut and Lulu to the outdoor playground area to blow off a little energy. The playground is filled with large cartoonish forest animals for the kids to climb on. We have photos of the three oldest kiddos playing on the exact same animals while Peanut was in the NICU 3 years ago.

Speaking of three years ago, one of Peanut’s doctors from her NICU days stopped by the playground to say hi. Dr. McElroy is a leading doctor on NEC and we’ve kept in touch over the last three years. He took the chance to get some new pictures of Peanut for an upcoming lecture he’s giving in London.

An afternoon of check-ups, and playgrounds, and photos makes a girl hungry, so before heading home we swung by the U of Iowa dorms and picked up the kiddos’ cousin who just started his first year at Iowa and found a place to get some burgers and fries. About half way through the meal, Peanut left her spot next to the DW and buddied up with her cousin. Normally, she only does that if she’s trying to steal your meal… not the case this time.

Not that there’s ever a shortage on the “to do list” around here, but we added one more to the list over the weekend.

The story goes that the DW’s grandfather built this desk for his tool shed at one point out of what he had handy. The DW remembers seeing it there. The pine top shows years of work. The frame is oak, walnut, or a combination of the two, and the turned legs are a mystery to me – maybe mahogany?

The desk is in pretty rough shape at this point. Two of the legs are loose and one section of the table top is completely free. The drawer is also missing.

So, at some point this winter – when the snow is blowing and we’re stuck inside – we’ll give the desk a thorough cleaning, tighten up the legs, and re-attach the top. Between now and then we’ll also need to decide on some type of finish. A stain to highlight some of the character in the lumber would be great. But, given the multiple types of lumber involved, that could be a huge challenge to pull off. At the very least, it needs to be protected in some way.

One thing we won’t need to worry about is where to put the desk once it’s finished. Someone has been pretty upfront about her wishes to use the desk for “home work.”

How to explain the gap in posts… hiatus… yeah, that’s what we’ll call it. It was a brief hiatus. Doesn’t that sound better?

A little late posting this, but we got to bring Peanut home from the hospital late Thursday! It’s been busy, busy ever since with homecare nurse visits/lab draws, and getting back into the routine of setting up and priming her TPN/Lipids tubes and getting her connected and disconnected from her IV pumps. She is currently on the pumps 12 hours a day. The hardest part is reminding her that she can’t just run off while connected to the pumps. LOL – which is a good thing – she is feeling great and has a lot of energy. Her eating is coming around. We’re also logging everything that goes in orally, and weighing everything that comes out in the diapers. All well worth it to have our family back under one roof! Love having all four kids together – even if they do argue — feeling blessed

Reunited and it feels so good!!! Lulu is here for the day…Peanut’s mood and activity level has instantly changed for the better. Peanut also got to skype with Potato Boy and Sissy last night!!! Sibling love melts my heart!

Hopefully Lulu can get Peanut to eat today! Peanut had a rough weekend with constant fevers of 101 – 103.4, persisting diarrhea, some vomiting, and refusing to eat. They did confirm through cultures that she does NOT have a picc line infection – which is a huge relief, since the picc line is providing all of her nutrition right now.

Peanut had a picc line successfully placed in her upper right arm yesterday afternoon. She was tentatively scheduled to come home today, however, she spiked a pretty high fever late last night. Since the risk for infection is so high with a central line, they immediately started intravenous antibiotics, ran labs, and are running blood cultures. The labs came back looking fairly good, and it takes up to 24 hours for cultures to be final (which would be 11:30pm tonight).

She had a decent night sleep, aside from diarrhea and bedding changes. She does not have a fever right now, and is playing in bed, talkative and playful. Hoping for an uneventful day!

Peanut continues to struggle nutritionally, so until her intestines get back on track, she will go home on TPN (which is what she came home from the hospital on as an infant). She is still able to eat, but she’s just can’t absorb the nutrition. She is preparing to have a picc line placed today at 1pm. Thankfully, daddy arrived this morning to help distract her (she can’t have any food for 8 hours before the procedure). Special time with her sweet dad is the perfect distraction for the next few hours. Daddy and I will get a refresher course today on her IV pumps and we will be able to bring her home this weekend!!!

Good Morning…beautiful sunrise in Iowa City! Thanks to Daddy’s cousin, Julie, for the stunning daffodils for Peanut’s room. We’re learning that slow and steady wins the race for Peanut’s recovery from this illness. We’ll be here for at least a few more days.